We’re big fans of life

That’s why the one and only priority of the Buck’s leadership is to support Buck science. We are at a critical inflection point in research on aging when fundamental biological discoveries are poised to become clinical realities. We believe the age of better aging starts now, and we are thrilled to be a part of it.

Our first, second, and third concerns: science, science, and science

Because of how we’re structured, how we conduct our research, and the elite collection of scientists we have working with us, the Buck is in a unique position to define the approach for solving many of the biggest problems facing the world today. The Buck’s leadership works every day to ensure our scientists have the support and resources they need as they tackle these immense challenges.

Dr. Eric Verdin

Eric Verdin is the president and chief executive officer of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. A native of Belgium, Dr. Verdin received his Doctorate of Medicine (MD) from the University of Liege and completed additional clinical and research training at Harvard Medical School. He has held faculty positions at the University of Brussels, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Picower Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Verdin is also a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Verdin joined the Buck in 2016 after spending the previous 20 years as a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, where he served as associate director from 2004 to 2016.

Dr. Verdin’s laboratory focuses on the role of epigenetic regulators in the aging process. His laboratory was the first to clone a family of enzymes called HDACs, which regulate histone acetylation. Dr. Verdin studies how metabolism, diet, and small molecules regulate the activity of HDACs and sirtuins, and thereby the aging process itself and its associated diseases, including Alzheimer’s. He has published more than 210 scientific papers and holds more than 15 patents. He is a highly cited scientist and has been recognized for his research with a Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging and a senior scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation. He is an elected member of several scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. He also serves on the advisory council of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the NIH.

Eric Verdin, MD

President and Chief Executive Officer

Malene Hansen, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer

Lee Hood, MD, PhD

Chief Innovation Officer

Meagan Moore

Chief Operations Officer

Robin Snyder, PhD

Vice President, Communications

Remy Gross III

Executive Vice President, Administration

Gordon Lithgow, PhD

Vice President, Academic Affairs

Brian Van Weele

Vice President, Chief Philanthropic Officer

Danielle Herrerias

Vice President, Human Resources

Contact for more information

Lauren Newman
Manager of Executive Administration
415-209-2229
Shelby Willits
Executive Assistant
415-209-2076
Matt Carbone

Chair of the Board of Trustees

Matt Carbone is co-founder and Managing Partner of AIMPERA Capital Partners, an institutional asset manager specializing in value-add infrastructure investing in asset-rich operating businesses that provide essential services. As a financial services entrepreneur, Matt helps scale and grow organizations by partnering with management teams, boards of directors and industry participants. He has led and actively managed investments in essential industries such as renewable energy, temperature-controlled warehousing, distributed power generation, telecommunication infrastructure, and waste management. Matt serves on the boards for Agile Cold Storage (co-Chairman), Novilla RNG (Chairman), Helicopter Express and Unison Energy (Chairman). He began his career in investment banking with a focus on growth companies and financial sponsors. Matt received his Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience from Amherst College and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Matt is Trustee for the Paul P. Carbone, M.D. Memorial Foundation. He previously served as a past President of the Board of San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, Treasurer for FIRESafe Marin, and as a member of the Guardsmen, a San Francisco charity serving the city’s underprivileged youth through outdoor activities and access to education.

Andy Barnes is founder and principal of Barnes and Company, which provides consulting and advisory services to organizations having complex land-use needs and sustainable development objectives. He utilizes his career experiences with numerous master-planned community projects to help build better places to live and work and to achieve more viable cities, emphasizing smart growth techniques. Andy has served in senior management positions at a number of sizable real estate organizations across the country in the course of his career. He specializes in large urban mixed-use development projects, often involving public/private ventures.

Andy is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, and is a former White House Fellow and German Marshall Fund Fellow. He also completed post graduate work at the Institut de Science Politique. He serves on the boards of Greenbelt Alliance and SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Development), and is a past chair of both organizations’ boards.
Dr. Buzzitta is a board certified internal medicine physician in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the founder and former CEO of the largest private physician-owned multi-specialty group in Michigan. He is currently president of Hughes Management LC, a real estate development company, and Hughes Ventures LLC, a private equity/venture capital company. Dr. Buzzitta has served on multiple boards, including the Spectrum Health System, the Michigan Professional Insurance Exchange, Priority Health, and the Grand Valley State University Foundation. He has spoken locally, regionally and nationally on the topics of physician integration, physician-hospital integration, healthcare economics, healthcare system strategies, the monetization of real estate, and healthcare system research and innovation strategies.
Peter Fioretti has been a real estate entrepreneur since just out of college. One of his companies, Mountain Funding, became one of the largest land & homebuilding investment platforms in the US. Currently, Mountain provides strategic equity to extraordinary real estate companies, to supercharge their success.

Peter uses his entrepreneurial vision, relationships and capital to make a significant social impact. His foundation serves underprivileged kids in education & jobs; and supports real estate and entrepreneurial students. He is also a mentor to highly successful entrepreneurs striving to make a significant difference in the world.

Peter enjoys extreme adventures including mountain climbing, hiking, diving, and biking. Peter and his brother were the first unassisted trekkers to reach the North Pole in 2018. Peter and his wife cycled across Italy, and explored Antarctica and reached the South Pole. He is a Future Astronaut with Virgin Galactic.

Peter’s passion is “Living with Vitality to 120”. He is Chair of the R360 Health & Wellness circle; and hosts events with world renowned scientists, doctors, nutritionists, trainers, and practitioners in improving health-span and longevity. He invests in research and protocols to significantly improve health-span.

Peter and his wife Heidi live in Charlotte NC and Miami FL. They enjoy adventure travel across the globe; and wine & food, sports, and music events. Peter’s children Peter Jr. and Arianna are enjoying their professional careers in Charlotte and NYC.
Anisya Fritz, Ph.D. has led organizations in the private and not for profit sectors and published articles in the fields of strategy, humanitarian relief and wine business.

Anisya is currently the Proprietor and Director of Marketing and Consumer Sales at Lynmar Estate, a producer of luxury Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley. She is a cofounder of Fritz Institute a not-for-profit organization focused on producing impactful research, training, metrics, and technology to improve humanitarian logistics worldwide. She served as its Executive Director for a decade. She is also a cofounder of LynnCo Supply Chain solutions, a logistics services company based in Tulsa Oklahoma. Previously, she was an Associate Professor of Management at Florida International University and a Visiting Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Anisya holds a BA from Loyola College in Maryland and an MS and PhD in Management from Virginia Tech. Anisya now shares her love of learning by teaching Wine Entrepreneurship to winery and vineyard owners at Sonoma State University. She currently serves on the Boards of Fritz Institute, LynnCo Supply Chain Solutions and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
David currently manages a vineyard in Sonoma County, is involved in several real estate development projects, is on the board of several companies in the real estate and technology space and serves on the Advisory Council for the Stanford Distinguished Career Institute. He has been actively involved in a number of civic organizations including the Cornell College of Art, Architecture and Planning, the Cornell School of Human Ecology and Junior Achievement of Southern California.

David spent much of his career at Gensler, the largest design firm in the world with 46 offices in 16 countries. Gensler provides architecture, design, planning and consulting services to over 2,500 clients. During his 23 years there, he helped grow the company from 500 people and $60M of revenue to over 5,000 people and $1.1B of revenue. He led the firm’s consulting practice, started the firm’s information solutions practice, was a Regional Managing Principal of EMEA, was the Chief Operating Officer and served on Gensler’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee for 12 years. For the last 10 years of his career there he was Co-CEO. As co-CEO, he was responsible for the firm’s operational infrastructure, including Finance, Global Talent, Legal/Risk Management, Communications, Public Relations, Practice Area Marketing, Applications Development, Technology, Global Advisory Services, Design Practice, and Research. David also had oversight responsibility for the firm’s EMEA, Asian and South American practices.

Prior to his career at Gensler, David worked across a number of fields including Financial Services at Morgan Stanley and the Pacific Stock Exchange, Technology at Microsoft and Datis Corp. and Management Consulting at Edgar, Dunn and Company.

Mr. Gensler holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College. David lives in Sebastopol California, is an active athlete and has four daughters.
Mike Ghilotti has been president of Ghilotti Bros., the North Bay's fifth-largest commercial contractor, since 2000. Part of the third generation to run the 90-year-old general engineering contractor, Mr. Ghilotti started with the family business while a college student, lubricating machinery full-time during the summers. Upon graduating from St. Mary's College in 1984 with a degree in construction management, he began managing company operations as a project manager. After two years, he took the helm of the company's North Bay region. Meanwhile, studying at night and on weekends, he earned his MBA from Golden Gate University in 1987.

Mike was president of the Association of Engineering Contract Employers in 2000 and is co-chair of the California Save the Missions Foundation.
Lydia Graham’s career intersects communications, health, and business and spans the national and international marketing, public relations, management, and entrepreneurship sectors. As president and CEO of Graham & Associates, Inc., a highly awarded communications and public relations company headquartered in San Francisco, she works as a creative strategist for clients in the American, European, and Asian markets and is recognized for her innovation and creativity in launching and re-launching new and established companies, divisions, and products in technology, health and wellness, and consumer goods and services. She has successfully concepted and launched new emerging categories, receiving more than 100 awards nationally and internationally. Her work in the health sector has focused specifically on life sciences, healthy living and aging, and longevity. Additionally, she is a partner and investor in several recognized national brands. Early in her career, she held marketing management positions for Qantas Airways HQ North America. She began her business career in management consulting after founding a natural foods company. She is a passionate evangelist for healthy living and healthy aging.
Jim Henry is a proven executive with broad business management and finance experience as a Vice Chair and Managing Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Since retiring from PwC in 2018, he has served as a board member and business advisor with several organizations in the healthcare, technology, and energy sectors, specializing in finance, audit, leadership development and corporate governance.

Jim is passionate about responsible business leadership. Throughout his career, he has volunteered and served on the boards of many philanthropic organizations, including UCSF’s Global Health Group. He is a leader in diversity and inclusion through community boards, with a focus on gender equity and underserved youth. Jim graduated from San Diego State.
Jane Inch has been a leader in community building and nonprofit leadership for over 30 years. A native of Northern California and alumna of UC Berkeley, Jane and her husband Bert live in Piedmont where they raised their sons. Jane’s passion for fundraising and philanthropy dates back to her membership in the Junior League of San Francisco as a teenager. In addition to her continued work with the Junior League, over the years she has done philanthropic work for a multitude of organizations including the San Francisco Opera Guild, the American Heart Association, the Cancer League, the Bay Area Arthritis Foundation and the Piedmont Schools.

Professionally, Jane is a Certified Personal Development and Life Coach. She also plays an active role in her family’s global packaging business, Transpak, the world leader in sustainably engineered packaging and integrated logistics solutions.
John M. Jack has worked in the software industry since 1980 in sales, marketing, and executive management. Highlights of his career include serving as chief executive officer at Fortify Software (sold to Hewlett-Packard) and at Covalent (sold to VMware), serving as chief operating officer at The Vantive Corporation (public, sold to PeopleSoft), and holding executive positions at Sybase, Inc. Since leaving Hewlett-Packard in January of 2012, he has served as a consultant to start-up companies and their CEOs. JJ currently serves on a number of venture-backed company boards in cyber-security and other segments of the technology industry. He is also a board partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
With more than 30 years of experience, Jill Kinney is an industry leader in the world of health and fitness. After founding Club One in 1991, Jill built it into a $90 million business with over 3,000 employees. She repurchased the company in 2014 and expanded its scope by establishing one of the first fitness/healthcare partnerships. Today, the company, now known as Active Wellness, is among the largest fitness management companies in the US. Jill is also a pioneer in digital health, having merged her weight loss and behavior improvement program, Itrim, with the digital wellcare platform Moni Health, a medically reimbursable, clinically validated weight loss and behavioral change program. Jill attended UC Berkeley and lives in Marin County.
Lizellen La Follette, MD, is a board-certified OB-GYN in private practice in Greenbrae, California. She offers women personalized, comprehensive healthcare, including both low & high risk obstetric services, wellness woman exams , Dr. La Follette established her own healthcare practice in 2004. A noted leader and educator in women’s health issues and vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) deliveries, Dr. La Follette also serves as medical advisor to innovative technology start-ups focused on improving women’s health and patient education. She is a member of the newly formed Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality (CRLE) at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. (https://www.drlafollette.com/)
Blair LaCorte is an accomplished leader and strategist with a long history of leveraging his change management skills to drive operational alignment and company growth. Prior to AEye, he served as global president of PRG, the world’s largest live event technology and services company. He was also CEO of XOJET, one of the fastest growing aviation companies in history and the largest private charter company in North America. He also served as a managing director and operating partner at TPG, a premier private equity firm with over $91B in global investments. LaCorte has held numerous executive and general management positions in private and public technology and investment companies throughout his career, including: VerticalNet, ICGE, Savi Technologies, Autodesk and Sun Microsystems. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maine and holds an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, where he later served as an executive fellow at the Center for Digital Strategies. He has garnered numerous patents across several domains, served on the Senate’s High Tech Advisory Board, and has been named an “Innovator of the Year” by NASA. LaCorte is an investor and astronaut in training with Virgin Galactic, as well as an investor in Moon Express, designer of the next generation of robotic spacecraft systems.
Sarah Marsey is a partner at Holland & Knight LLP, based in the law firm’s San Francisco office. A graduate of California State University, San Francisco and Rutgers University School of Law, she began her career in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Sarah has successfully represented corporations and individuals in jury and bench trials and binding arbitrations in California and Alaska. Her practice focuses on all types of complex litigation including contract disputes, insurance matters, and trade secrets.
Dr. Afaf Meleis’s research scholarship focuses on global health, women's health, culturally competent practice, interprofessional education, and epistemological development and progress in the discipline of nursing. Much of her life's work has been dedicated to uncovering the voices of vulnerable populations and to developing “transitions theory,” which is used globally and has been translated into policy, research, and evidence-based-practice. Dr. Meleis is the author of over 200 articles and books in nursing, medical, and social science journals. She speaks and consults widely in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, addressing social inequities facing women and marginalized populations. Dr. Meleis is the recipient of numerous awards as well as honorary doctorates from national and international universities. She is a graduate of the University of Alexandria, Egypt, and the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a professor of nursing and sociology and dean emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She is also a professor emeritus at University of California, San Francisco, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Nursing, and other societies.
Jim Mellon is a British entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is co-founder and chairman of Juvenescence, a British Virgin Islands–based holding company that invests in human aging and longevity. He is chairman of Regent Pacific Group Limited, a Hong Kong–listed investment company that specializes in growth- and value-led investments in health care and late-stage life science assets. Jim is coauthor of Juvenescence: Investing in the Age of Longevity.

Lilian is a Managing Member of Ponte Partners Management LLC, focused on secondary venture investing in healthcare and technology. She previously founded Dovedale Investments, an investment management firm she ran for ten years prior to Ponte Partners. Lilian has been active in the financial markets for over 35 years, completing public and private transactions valued at over $3.3 billion. She is a Board Director of Arcadia Biosciences. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Lilian received her MBA from Harvard Business School.
Bill Poland is Chairman Emeritus at the Buck Institute. A real estate entrepreneur, Bill is founder and president of Bay West Group, a commercial real estate development company committed to creating value in the development of urban infill, opportunistic, and adaptive reuse projects. He is a member of the Georgia Tech President’s Advisory Board, the Urban Land Institute, and the board of the Steers Global Real Estate Center at Georgetown University. Previously, Bill served as chair of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, president of the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and councilmember of the town of Ross, California. Bill holds a BA in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Stanford.
Steven Read is a Founding Partner of Read Investments, a preeminent boutique commercial real estate firm operating throughout the Bay Area, Northern California, and the Pacific Northwest. He is the former CEO and Chairman of the Board of Grocery Outlet, Inc, a 300-store chain operating in eight western states. An avid skier and cyclist, Read is a current member of the Board of Trustees of the Steadman-Philippon Institute Sports Medicine Foundation, the USSA Ski Team, and the United States Olympic Committee. He is also a member of the UCSF Board of Overseers. Previous board roles include the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Opera, Duke University, and the University of San Francisco.
Mr. Reid emigrated to the Bay Area in 1962 to take up a law school Teaching Fellowship at the U.C. Berkeley school of law (then known at Boalt Hall). He then moved across the bay to San Francisco where he practiced law for over thirty years with an interruption to serve for several years as Minority Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. He was a founder of Marron-Reid, a Northern California law firm with its home office in San Francisco. In the later years of his practice he was increasingly involved in the legal affairs of non-profits, and he steered the conversion of health care systems from non-profit to for-profit status. In 1998 he left law practice to become President and CEO of The California Endowment, the largest health-related charitable foundation in California with assets of $4 billion.

A graduate of Princeton in electrical engineering, Mr. Reid received his law degree from the Harvard Law School. He was previously a Lecturer in Law at Boalt Hall, a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, President of the American Society for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Board Chair of the Buck Institute. He is currently a director of the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, a private foundation funding research in diabetes and diseases of aging.
Robert Rosenkranz serves as the CEO of the insurance company Delphi Financial Group, Inc., and as the director of The Rosenkranz Foundation. At Delphi, which he established in 1987, he oversees the management of approximately $14 billion in assets. In leading the foundation, Robert focuses on promoting effective public policy discourse; higher education; and the arts, with an emphasis on Asian art. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

Seeking to encourage intellectual diversity in public discourse, The Rosenkranz Foundation initiated Intelligence Squared U.S., a live debate series aimed at fostering reasoned discussion on pertinent policy matters. The series reaches a national audience via 220 NPR radio stations and several digital media platforms. Robert has also offered substantial support to Yale University through the activities of the foundation, funding 20 new courses, a writers’ residency, and a number of legal education initiatives supporting intellectual diversity.

Robert serves on the Board of Directors of Policy Exchange, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Visiting Committee for the Department of Photography and the Dean’s Council of the Yale School of Architecture.
From 2000 until his retirement in late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation’s leading health care and related benefits organizations. Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1998 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, he was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Before joining Mount Sinai, he was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. Currently, Dr. Rowe chairs the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society and chairs the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Aging, Disability and Independence. He was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, he serves on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation and is a former member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Dr. Rowe is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Founding Chairman of Stanford's Center on Longevity’s External Advisory Council.
With more than 37 years of experience in the investment and wealth advisory business, Theo Schwabacher, a Certified Wealth Strategist, is the Executive Director of “The Schwabacher Group” at Morgan Stanley. Her group concentrates on comprehensive wealth planning and consulting for affluent families. Theo is a fourth generation San Franciscan. Her grandfather and father were both involved in the brokerage and investment banking business and sold their company, Schwabacher and Company, to Dean Witter in 1968. Theo has served on many philanthropic boards in San Francisco including the Red Cross, the San Francisco Cancer Society, the San Francisco Mental Health Association, and the San Francisco Opera. Among other affiliations, she is currently co-chair of the Women Corporate Directors Foundation of Northern California.
Fredric Steck is a retired partner of Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment banking and securities firm. During his 25 years with the investment bank, Mr. Steck held a number of leadership positions, including National Sales Manager for the Fixed Income Currency and Commodities Division.

Mr. Steck is a member of the board of Aravo Solutions, Inc. an enterprise software company addressing the issue of third party risk and compliance. He is Chairman of DNP, a holding company with a major investment in Thorne Research, a science based health and wellness company. Mr. Steck has served in many capacities on the UC Santa Barbara Foundation Board including Chairman and vice-Chairman of Development.

Mr. Steck is a private investor with interests in entrepreneurship, education, and environment. He is the sole donor and a trustee of the Fredric E. Steck Family Foundation in Santa Ynez.
Richard Stone, CLU, CFP, is the founder and chairman of Private Ocean, which is widely recognized as one of the most successful progressive wealth management advisory firms in the country. He has been engaged in investing and financial planning in the Bay Area for more than 40 years. He was awarded the prestigious 2011 Schwab IMPACT Leadership Award, which recognizes advisors and firms that have advanced the industry through their visionary leadership, innovative practices, and exceptional growth. The Leadership Award, one of three IMPACT Awards, recognizes his embodiment of the value of independent investment advice through vision, commitment, and community engagement. He is chairman of the Personal Financial Planning Advisory Board at UC Berkeley Extension. He also serves as a member of both the Dominican University board of trustees and the Global Business Council at San Jose State.
Eric Verdin, MD, became president and chief executive officer of the Buck Institute in November 2016. Eric joined the Buck from the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology, where he served as associate director and senior investigator. He has held faculty positions at the University of Brussels, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Picower Institute for Medical Research. Eric is also a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco. The Verdin lab focuses on how metabolism, diet, and small molecules regulate a family of key proteins and, as a result, the aging process and its associated diseases. Eric has published more than 210 scientific papers and holds more than 15 patents. A native of Belgium, he earned his MD from the University of Liege and completed additional training at Harvard Medical School.
Paul R. Verkuil, an oft-cited administrative law professor, served as the Senate confirmed Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, or ACUS, from 2010 to 2015. He reestablished the agency after a 15-year hiatus by emphasizing its bipartisan governance structure and objective research and recommendations. Following his tenure as Chairman, he became a Senior Fellow of ACUS and the National Academy of Public Administration.

Paul is President Emeritus of the College of William & Mary, has been Dean of the Tulane Law School and the Cardozo School of Law, and was a faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of Law. He is a graduate of William and Mary and the University of Virginia School of Law and holds a J.S.D. from the New York University School of Law. Among his career highlights is serving as Special Master in New Jersey v. New York, an original jurisdiction case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which determined sovereignty over Ellis Island. Verkuil also practiced law at several leading New York City law firms and served as CEO of the American Automobile Association. Paul serves on the Advisory Board of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and on the Boards of the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation and the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust.
Dr. Joon Yun is President and Managing Partner of Palo Alto Investors LP, a healthcare hedge fund founded in 1989. Board certified in radiology, Joon served on the clinical faculty at Stanford from 2000-2006. Joon has served on numerous boards, and he is currently a trustee of the Salk Institute. Joon is a member of the President's Circle of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Joon has published dozens of patents and scientific articles. Joon and his wife Kimberly launched the $1 million Palo Alto Longevity Prize in 2013 to reverse the aging process and recently donated $2 million to launch the National Academy of Medicine Aging and Longevity Grand Challenge. Fun fact: Joon has been going to Burning Man consecutively for the past 18 years.
Professor of Developmental and Molecular Biology
Co-Director, Einstein Institute for Aging Research
Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry and Biophysics
UCSF School of Medicine
Professor, Microbiology & Immunology
Stanford University
Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology
Thomas and Stacey Siebel Distinguished Chair in Stem Cell Research
Howard Hughes Medical Investigator
University of California, Berkeley
President
Professor, Laboratory of Genetics
Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease
The Salk Institute

Director, Professor, Cellular Biochemistry
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Senior Investigator, Head of the Section on Integrative Physiology and Metabolism at Joslin Diabetes Center
Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School

Professor and Travelers Chair in Geriatrics and Gerontology
Director, UConn Center on Aging, University of Connecticut
Chief, Geriatric Medicine, UConn Health
Professor of Molecular Biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
Princeton University
Director, UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center
Professor, Neurology, UCLA & Stanford
Associate Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School
Director, Bay Area Institute of Science, Altos Labs
Professor & Chair, Dept of Biochemistry/Biophysics, UCSF
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Dick Bodman is chairman of TDF Ventures, a venture capital firm and foundation based in Washington, D.C. He is also the managing general partner of VMS Group, president of Venture Management Services, Inc., and a managing member of VMS Fund Administration, LLC (VMSFA), all of which perform administrative and advisory services for venture capital funds. He is co-founder and chairman of PurThread Technologies, Inc., which makes antimicrobial textile products. He is also the managing manager of Bodman Oil & Gas, LLC, and a board member of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Allergy. From 1990 to 1996, he was senior vice president for strategy and development at AT&T, lead director at Sandia National Laboratories, and founder and chairman of AT&T Ventures. From 1973 to 1990, he held various management and C-level positions in a private equity firm, communication and satellite corporations, and a major American conglomerate. He also served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior and, subsequently, as assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Office of the President between 1971 and 1973.
Darla Flanagan has been a commercial real estate investment and finance executive for over 35 years. She currently owns and manages a portfolio of commercial assets for her family investment company, MKD Investments. She also founded Fowler Flanagan Partners, a real estate investment firm, and was an executive of JMB Realty for 12 years. She has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including Catellus Development Company, The Branson School, Blue Oak School, and Adopt-a-Family of Marin.
Retired President and CEO, Bank of Marin. Former board member of Marin YMCA, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Buck Institute for Education, Film Institute of Northern California, North Bay Leadership Council, and Canine Companions for Independence. Former Director of the Marin School to Career Partnership.
Charles S. La Follette is the President of La Follette Capital, a consulting firm. Prior to starting La Follette Capital, Mr. La Follette served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of California Energy Company, Inc. He also held positions as Chief Financial Officer of Chronicle Publishing, Executive Vice President of U.S. Leasing, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CBS, Inc. as well as Executive Vice President of Crown Zellerbach. His past business directorships include the Pacific Stock Exchange, U.S. Leasing International, and Crown Zellerbach. Mr. La Follette’s non-profit directorship positions consist of Finance Chairman of California-Pacific Medical Center Foundation, Trustee Emeritus of the Archaeological Institute of America, Board Member of San Francisco Art Institute and the San Francisco Ballet, as well as, Chair of the Investment Committee of Marin Community Foundation to name a few.

Mr. La Follette received a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. Mr. La Follette resides in San Francisco with his wife, Ellen. They have four grown children that all attended Harvard as well.
Edward Lanphier is a former president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and has served as a Buck trustee since 2012. With more than 30 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, Edward is a globally recognized leader in the biopharmaceutical industry. Throughout his professional career, he has been on the forefront of health innovations and therapeutic solutions. In 1995, Edward founded Sangamo BioSciences, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that researches and conducts gene therapy and genome editing. Edward served as the company’s president and CEO from its inception until June 2016, and he currently serves as chairman of Sangamo’s board of directors. He previously served as chairman of the board of directors for the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine and is a member of the board of directors for the Biotechnology Institute and the University of Michigan School of Public Health’s Dean’s Advisory Board. He has significant nonprofit experience with globally focused research and advocacy organizations. Before founding Sangamo, he held management positions at some of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry’s most respected companies, including Eli Lilly, Synergen, and Somatix.
John Larson is a retired San Francisco attorney with over 40 years of practice devoted to high-tech and life science companies. John left as a partner at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in December 2009 after joining the firm in 2003. Previously, he had served as partner at the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP from 1969 until retiring in January 2003, except between July 1971 to September 1973, when he served as Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior and Counselor to George P. Shultz, chairman of the Cost of Living Council. From 1988 until March 1996, John served as the CEO for Brobeck. He also served on the board of directors of Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. for 20 years. He is a former chair of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and past president of The Branson School’s board of trustees. John served as chairman of the board of directors for WageWorks, a NYSE company, from 2006 until 2016, and he currently serves as an independent director for the board.
Bill Poland is Chairman Emeritus at the Buck Institute. A real estate entrepreneur, Bill is founder and president of Bay West Group, a commercial real estate development company committed to creating value in the development of urban infill, opportunistic, and adaptive reuse projects. He is a member of the Georgia Tech President’s Advisory Board, the Urban Land Institute, and the board of the Steers Global Real Estate Center at Georgetown University. Previously, Bill served as chair of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, president of the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and councilmember of the town of Ross, California. Bill holds a BA in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Stanford.
Lewis Reid was a founder of Marron-Reid, LLC, a Northern California law firm that has its home office in San Francisco. He practiced law for over three decades, primarily in the areas of corporate transactions and tax law. In 1998, he left law practice to become president and CEO of The California Endowment, the largest health-related charitable foundation in California. He stepped down as the foundation’s president and CEO in 2000 and remained on its board of trustees until 2009. Lewis is currently a director of the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, a private foundation devoted to research in diabetes and diseases of aging. His previous professional positions include lecturer in law at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and minority counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. He is a former chairman of the board at the Buck.
Larry Rosenberger assumed the role of Fair Isaac’s first research fellow in October 2007 and currently fulfills that role on a half-time basis, continuing a career with the company that began in 1974. From 1999 to 2007, he led Fair Isaac’s Research Unit, which was focused on early-stage innovation in predictive and decision analytics aimed at helping consumer products and services clients make better decisions on their prospects and customers. From 1991 to 1999, he served as Fair Isaac’s president and CEO. During that time, Fair Isaac experienced consecutive years of record growth, with annual revenues increasing from $31 million to over $276 million. Prior to that position, he led the Engineering, Research, and Development Division, which was focused on the technical development, production, and marketing of the company's most advanced products, such as TRIAD adaptive control and the FICO score, as well as advances in predictive analytics methodology. In addition to board work, he informally advises a number of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. He co-authored The Deciding Factor: The Power of Analytics to Make Every Decision a Winner (2009).
Charles M. Stockholm is a semi-retired business executive with over 50 years of commercial financial experience primarily in the Asia Pacific region. He currently serves as an advisor to the TCW Group. He also served as Chairman of Citibank International, and was Senior Executive Vice President of Crocker National Bank, and Managing Director of Trust Company of the West. He served as Chairman of Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., and Matson Navigation Company. He has served on a number of corporate boards in Japan, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Mr. Stockholm served on the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Board, was President of the Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, President of the Asian Art Museum Foundation of San Francisco, and is a Trustee Emeritus of the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Mr. Stockholm graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Economics, and completed graduate work at the American Graduate School of International Management and the Harvard PMD Program. He is a resident of Marin County.

A mission-driven community of investigators

The Buck is a collective of the world’s top scientists in the field of aging who are sharing their methods and expertise to find ways to help everyone lead fuller, healthier lives by ending age-related disease.

Our team

Support the Buck

We rely on donations to support the science that we believe will add years to people's lifespan and decades to their healthspan.